Alabama

Richard leaving Auburn to be AD at Gannon

Nice-guy Mark Richard, a senior associate athletic director at Auburn, is leaving the school to become the Athletics Director at Gannon University in Erie, Pa.

That's close to his boyhood home.

Richard has been at Auburn for 10 years and served as associate AD for compliance and later senior associate AD for team support.

``I've had a great 10 years at Auburn and have grown so much professionally and personally,'' Richard said. ``I want to thank David Housel for giving me the opportunity to work at Auburn and to Jay Jacobs for providing me with chance to expand my professional duties."

Richard came to Auburn from Vanderbilt, where he was the Assistant Athletics
Director for Compliance. He also was the Director of NCAA Compliance and Student Services at UNLV (1993-97) and the Director of Student-Athlete Services at North Carolina State (1990-93).

In a totally unrelated bit of news, Auburn women's basketball coach Nell Fortner was named the 2009 Basketball Times Magazine National Coach of the Year, Auburn said Wednesday.